When transactions are conducted on-line or in person, specifically, business, personal, governmental or health transactions, customers must provide an agency with which the transaction is conducted with personal information. Such personal information may include address, telephone number, social security number, credit card numbers and bank account numbers. This information is highly valuable to other companies. Many times after a transaction is conducted the customer's personal information is sold to other companies without the customer's consent. In today's society, especially because most companies have access to the Internet and are able to easily transfer information to others, it is difficult for the customer to keep such personal information private. The more transactions the customer conducts, the more agencies have access to that customer's personal information and the more likely it is that the customer's personal information will be distributed to other companies on-line or otherwise.
Additionally, customers have many different cards with various types of personal information. For example, a customer may have a card with his or her bank account number, a card with his or her social security number and numerous credit cards with his or her credit card numbers. Numerous cards are necessary as one agency may only accept a certain type of card. At times, the number of cards one customer may have may be overwhelming and difficult to keep track of. Carrying such a large number of cards increases the risk of losing one or more cards. Without even realizing it, a customer may be putting the lost card in the hands of someone who may use it to the customer's disadvantage.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a user with a secure single medium such as an optical memory card (known in the art) that stores the user's personal information and that is used in conjunction with a method to conduct various transactions. It is a further object to provide a user with a method of conducting a transaction wherein the user is able to securely transmit personal information on-line to a broker who assists in conducting the transaction rather than providing an agency with direct access to that information. It is an additional object of the invention to allow a user the choice as to what type of transaction he or she wishes to conduct with the secure single medium wherein the choice is made using a transaction site such as, for example, the broker's web site, a kiosk including a reader/writer, a monitor and personal computer, or a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA). It is a further object of the invention that the user is able to transmit personal information directly to the agency if desired.
Additionally, it is an object of the present invention to provide the user with a choice as to which personal information to transmit and whether to transmit the personal information to an agency directly or to the broker. It is a further object of the invention that the agency is able to advertise its product and services at the transaction site. A transaction site may, for example, be a computer having a reader/writer or the kiosk and include the broker's e-commerce site. It is another object of the invention that a personalized web page appears when each agency and user accesses the broker's e-commerce site.